Final Week of Building Safety Month Focuses on Disaster Preparedness

For the last week of Building Safety Month, which is recognized every May (as WaterISAC reported on its May 4 Security & Resilience Update), the theme is “Disaster Preparedness.” The International Code Council (ICC) is a leading sponsor of Building Safety Month and notes that one of the best ways to prepare for disasters is to build to the most up-to-date, modern building codes. It adds that only 35 percent of hazard-prone jurisdictions in the U.S. adopt the latest two editions of hazard-resistant building codes. The ICC references numerous publications that have demonstrated how building or renovating structures to modern, hazard-resistant standards leads to major reductions in property losses from predictable natural disasters, including a National Institute of Building Sciences report that calculated a benefit of $11 for every $1 invested. It offers a series of resources with more information on codes and standards as well as on disaster preparedness. Read more and access the resources at the ICC.